The present invention relates to an image forming method and image forming apparatus, particularly to an image forming method and image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus is connected with a finisher for applying processing of finishing such as stapling.
When images of a plurality of documents have been formed by an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, sheets are collated for each copy and are bound by stapling (staple-finishing) in some cases.
In this case, a finisher is placed adjacent to the image forming apparatus proper and the transfer sheet ejected from the image forming apparatus proper is received by the finisher, which applies processing of staple-finishing.
When such staple finishing is performed, one of the four corners of the document is specified if one-point binding (corner stapling) is used. When two-point binding (lateral stapling) is used, any one of four edges is specified.
To cope with the staple position specified by the user, the finisher must be designed to permit stapling on any one of the four corners or edges of the sheet. To put it another way, the user has been unable to specify a desired staple position when a finisher is capable of stapling on one position or one side (edge) alone, according to the prior art.
To provide an apparatus capable of stapling at any one of the four corners or edges, the staple mechanism is complicated and the stapling apparatus is costly.
To solve this problem, a proposal has been made in JP 06-255283, wherein an image is formed after the image is rotated by image processing in order to staple a transfer sheet at a desired position using a finisher where stapling position is restricted.
For the direction of the transfer sheet or image at the time of ejection, JP 2003-162101 given below discloses the art of ejecting the transfer sheet ejected wherein its specified side—either the obverse or reverse side—is kept to face upward, when a finisher is connected.
JP 2001-075421 given below introduces an art of processing the image rotation, independently of the direction of the document to be set, wherein an image is formed on the transfer sheet placed in a fixed direction, and the direction of the set document (lateral direction or longitudinal direction) is adjusted, whereby an image is formed and the sheet is ejected.
Incidentally, when an image forming apparatus of this type is used, the transfer sheets with an image formed thereon are taken up in a bundle and are set on a separate cutting machine in some cases. In this case, when sheets are taken out of the image forming apparatus in the direction suited for being set on the cutting machine, the work efficiency is drastically improved.
The art disclosed JP 06-255283 and JP 2003-162101 is satisfactory to the extent of specifying the obverse or reverse side of the transfer sheet, and automatically rotating an image conforming to the stapling. However, it fails to arrange the direction of the image that facilitates removal of the transfer sheet.
According to the art described in JP 2001-075421, the direction of the transfer sheet is simply kept constant, independently of the direction of the original. It fails to provide the direction of the image that facilitates the re-setting of a bundle of transfer sheets on another finisher or to the removal of the bundle of transfer sheet.